Two Boynton police majors fired

Mayor says department being reorganized

Two Boynton Beach Police Department majors, who worked a combined total of 47 years for the city, were terminated Thursday.

City Manager Lori LaVerriere thanked Wendy Unger and Frank Briganti for their service in a hand-delivered termination letter and wished them the best in the future.

The city manager's office had no comment on the terminations, but Mayor Jerry Taylor said that the city manager is rearranging the police department, after Chief Matthew Immler announced July 12 will be his last day.

"[LaVerriere's] reorganizing the police department with the chief leaving, she wanted to reorganize and let those two go," Taylor said.

Unger and Briganti are entitled to unused vacation leave, unused sick leave and 90 days of a prorated base salary, according to the termination letter.

Unger and Briganti couldn't be reached, despite calls.

Unger began working with the Boynton police department in 1989. In 1996, she was the first female police officer in the department to be promoted to sergeant.

Briganti began working at the Boynton police department in 1988. He worked as the SWAT commander from 2002 to 2005.

The city's police department had been under scrutiny in recent years for officer misconduct and corruption.

In 2011, David Britto, a former Officer of the Year was charged with drug trafficking and fled to Brazil. He still remains at large.

Two officers, Michael Mulcahy and Michael Arco, were arrested for lying on police reports in 2011.

Former sergeant Frank Ranzie was terminated in May for downloading porn while on duty.

Last year, the city spent $54,000 to hire Berkshire Advisors, a consulting company out of Ohio to do a review of the police department.

The review will be ready next month and is supposed to provide a detailed report of the state of the city's police department. The report will include individual interviews with employees, results from confidential surveys and community input on how to change the department.